


Envoy to Arendelle

by thedevilchicken



Category: Brave (2012), Disney Princesses, Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, Fairy Tale Curses, Silly, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26358853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken
Summary: Merida's parents send her on a diplomatic trip. The Queen of Arendelle isn't the only witch she meets there.
Relationships: Elsa/Merida (Disney)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41
Collections: We die afen and afen





	Envoy to Arendelle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cricket_aria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/gifts).



> Just in case you're not familiar with Madam Mim, she's the witch from Disney's _Sword in the Stone_!

"Do you want to build a snowman?" Elsa says, and the exasperated look on her face is really something. She's cute when she's talking curse-inspired nonsense, as it turns out, not that Merida's about to tell her that. She's not totally sure she wouldn't get showered in snow for her trouble, and snow sometimes plays havoc with her hair.

There was a witch. If there's one thing Merida is sure of in life, it's that there's _always_ a witch. You're riding a horse through a forest? Witch. You're taking a trip through a faraway kingdom? Witch. You're a diplomatic envoy to said faraway kingdom, at a party wearing a ballgown that's like something your mum might've worn when she was still a bear? Yep: definitely time for a witch. And not just the one that's the current Queen of Arendelle, either. 

(If it'd just've been Elsa, Merida thinks that would've been fine. They'd been getting on a bit like a house on fire since she'd arrived, at least till the whole curse thing came up.)

They'd been having the ball outside that evening, which had seemed strange to Merida until she'd realised the main square was one big ice rink and no one wanted to slide face-first into a ballroom wall or collide with a hundred-year-old suit of armour. 

It was the middle of summer and the ice took the edge off the too-warm-in-this-dress grumpiness she'd been stamping down since she'd put it on, all green velvet that felt like she'd wrapped herself up in one of her mum's great big heavy tapestries instead of putting on a dress. She could just hear her mum inside her head, telling her to make a good impression, and the Queen would expect her to be ladylike and could she just follow proper etiquette for once? 

"Would you like to dance?" Elsa asked. 

Merida looked up. The Queen of Arendelle was standing there in front of her with a smile on her face; apparently she didn't mind that she'd found her guest from DunBroch slouching over her table, one cheeks smushed up against her palm. Or else she was too polite to mention it.

Merida sat up straight, and rubbed her cheek. "With you?" she asked. 

"Well, I'm sure we could find someone else if you'd prefer," Elsa replied. 

"No, no, you'll do!" Merida said, and she shot up onto her feet, then dropped her head into her hands when she saw Elsa's smile turn into a grin at what she'd just said. "I mean, you'll more than do, your majesty. It'd be an honour?"

Elsa laughed and held out one gloved hand. "We'll see how honoured you feel when we're on the ice," she said, and Merida went with her, hand in hand, feeling her face turn almost redder than her hair. But they didn't get to dance because, of course, _of course_ , the witch arrived. 

"All this fun and you didn't think to invite little old me?" the witch said, as she popped out of the air into the middle of the ice rink. She had bright purple hair and a bright pink skirt and looked nothing like the witches in the tales Merida had heard, or much like the one she'd met. She didn't look much kinder, either, not like Elsa did. Something about the way she stamped her feet until a pair of ice skates popped up underneath her and she tossed her purple hair as she started skating about just seemed...odd.

Elsa frowned. "I'm afraid that would have been difficult since I don't know who you are," she replied. 

The witch scowled. "That's no excuse!" she said, as she twirled, though frankly Merida really thought it was a good one. 

Then the witch snapped her fingers and, without further ado, Elsa - and Merida, who she was still holding by the hand - weren't in Arendelle anymore. 

The curse, it turned out, was twofold: one, they were a hundred miles from Arendelle, somewhere up in the freezing mountains where the snow never seemed to melt, and two, Elsa was having trouble with her words. 

"The snow glows white on the mountain tonight," Elsa said, then she made a not-very-queenlike face as they stood there knee-deep in a snow drift. 

"I don't know how to tell you this but it's not nighttime yet and the snow's not exactly lit up like a beacon," Merida replied. She squeezed Elsa's hand. "Are you feeling alright?"

Elsa sighed. "The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside," she said. 

Merida scrunched her face up. "Is that a metaphor?" she asked. "Because it's not actually been windy for more than fifteen minutes since I got here from DunBroch." 

Elsa laughed, but it didn't sound much like she found it funny. Merida shivered, suddenly thankful for the too-thick dress that looked like her mum's best curtains. But she supposed at least when she asked her, as they started trudging back down the hill toward Arendelle, "So, who do you think that was?" she managed to say something that almost seemed like it might be approaching sense. 

Elsa paused, her hand still wrapped tight around Merida's.She looked at her, all pretty eyes and pretty hair and pretty _everything_ , so close that Merida almost felt warm. 

"The magnificent, marvelous, Mad Madam Mim," Elsa said, which maybe explained a thing or two. Then she conjured a huge monster made of snow that hoisted them up onto its shoulder and marched them down the mountainside so far that it actually felt much more like wind than they'd had in the nine days since she'd arrived. It made her hair blow out behind her and straight into Elsa's face. She laughed when Merida tried to say sorry, and wrapped one arm around her when she shivered from the cold.

"We can fix this hand in hand," Elsa said, as she laced her fingers up with Merida's. Merida, for her part, really did believe her. 

It didn't take more than a day to get back down to Arendelle and when they got there, somehow, nothing much seemed wrong. They'd expected a fight but people were going about their business just like usual, no sign of trouble there at all. And, when they got back to the palace, Elsa's sister threw her arms around her. 

"Oh, we wondered where you were!" Anna said. "You missed all the excitement."

"Madam Mim?"

"Three fairies, a talking owl and a genie as tall as the castle turned up while she was waltzing with Olaf and told her to go straight back to England or they'd go fetch Merlin," Anna said. "Then we had cake?"

There was leftover cake, it turned out, which helped the situation. But now, sitting at the table in the castle, a bit dishevelled but not too much the worse for wear, Elsa holds out her hands. 

"Do you want to build a snowman?" she says, which might make sense inside her head but it doesn't very much in Merida's. Or maybe it doesn't make sense to her either because she gives her a look that's a lot like she could scream. 

"Well, no," Meridas replies. "Not at this exact moment." She frowns. She leans a little closer, as she takes Elsa's hands. "Wait. Is that some kind of euphemism?"

When they kiss, it doesn't take Merida entirely by surprise because it feels like it's been a really long time coming - all those walks in the gardens and the chats over tea, and how Elsa only smiled and conjured up an icy slide to help her down when she caught her climbing a trellis to pick up a stray arrow. She'd slipped down it on her feet and straight into Queen Elsa's arms - to be completely honest, the surprise is that it's taken them a witch and a wander and an odd sort of curse to get their lips together, not the fact it happens at all.

And, when Elsa pulls away, she still has her hands in hers. "I think you just broke the curse," she says, and beams when the words come out sensible. Merida can't help but smile back. 

Witches get everywhere, Merida thinks: forests and lochs and mountainsides, and everywhere you least expect them on top of all the places that you do. They cause all kinds of mischief. They get you into all kinds of trouble. 

When Elsa kisses her again, and steps in close, she thinks that's the kind of trouble she'd like to get used to.


End file.
